Aging Woes

My laptop is dying. I can sense it.

I use an almost 4 year old HP Pavillion dv2519. Something tells me it's not going to be around for long.

Some keyboard keys are gone. Scratches fill the lid with a pattern of their own. Paint is chipping from everywhere. It overheats and shuts down from time to time. DVDs don't work anymore. Webcam now works only half the time. Two USB ports have given up. Today, I saw the replaced screen also flickering from the bottom. After surviving two drops and transplants of RAM, screen, battery and hinges, it has gone through a lot. Thus, my worries.

But this is not the best time to die for my laptop. I can't afford a new one with certain big expenditures planned. Also, there are newer processors, OS refreshes and super-fast ports coming up next summer.

Stay with me, HP, stay with me. At least for another six months.

What?

This semester has been the fastest. And the worst.

After three semesters, I guess I can now state that it's getting worse with each semester. I have started caring lesser too.

It's the first placement season at my institute and every other guy seems to be caring more about CGPAs and CVs. I have stopped giving a damn. Or have I?

I will do what I want to do. What I like to do. What I feel like doing. I refuse to turn into a machine.

End-sem exams are bringing it up again- What the hell do I really want? WHAT?

Don't get me wrong. Nothing happened at my college. It's still awesome. Most of the subjects are awesome too. Just don't appreciate the system and myself and this time.

I need a break. Just one more week to go.

Pssst- Will be at the starting line of Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in 6 hours. Should be real fun.

Every 30 minutes

Did you know that around 70% of India lives on less than Rs. 20 per day? I didn't.

The average rate of suicide by farmers is one every 30 minutes.

45% of rural India's children are malnourished compared to around 25% in sub-Saharan Africa.

Most "important" government decisions like creating highly subsidized SEZs and considering airline bailouts (of the tune of Rs.6-7k crore) are for the top 1% of the population. They may affect the remaining 30% of us to some degree but what about the rest 70%? A single crore can save lives of lots of uneducated villagers.

Not the best time to be an Indian.

An eye-opening interview:

I love and hate Critical Reading lectures at the same time.

Hitched

Sister got hitched last week! It was a big fat Indian wedding and we had a ton of fun. It's amazing how much work goes into these things and how they finish in a jiffy.

But it was all worth it in the end. Returning back to college was a huge pain.

Some pictures ensue.

From wearing kurtas to suiting up, I wore some new clothes:

There was a mehandi ceremony in which a surprisingly large number of people from my family danced.

All cousins stayed up after the mehendi and sangeet ceremony to prepare a dance for the engagement the next day. Two of my cousins made us rehearse till 7 am. 

Imagine around 20 children in all shapes and sizes in a large hall. There were complaining neighbors, tickling sisters, flying pillows. Also there was a LOT of laughing for those who were witnessing us rehearse.

Speaking of the dance, it went fairly okay after just 6-7 hours of practice, considering the fact that most of us thought that dancing meant moving your limbs wherever and however you can till the song is loud.

Some pictures of the dance:

I did not realize how punjabi weddings include so much of lifting people. I lifted at least thrice during different ceremonies.

This guy was all what-the-hell first and then lifted me later:

I am behind my cousins here, lending my muscle power discreetly to lift my sister:

There was also a shoe-hiding game in which we won after around 15 people climbed on the groom's sister:

The Canadian girl in the background is going all WTF.

Photographers also click awkward and cliched poses of the bride and groom. I liked a particular one:

And to end, there was a nice picture of me with my cousins in our best clothes:

Steve Jobs

Death's a bitch. He called it "the single best invention of Life." I am not mature enough to understand this.

Like millions of others, he inspired me. He made me want to be a creator. To create something that disappears into people's lives.

Read this somewhere on Twitter:

If you want to honor Steve, don't mourn. Do your best work every day. Live your life to the fullest. Never settle. His spirit lives on.

I want to honor him.
Picture from here.

Reaction

Is there something wrong with me if I laughed more at this video than at the last 4 episodes of How I Met Your Mother combined? Probably not.

Still can't stop chuckling.

All things Apple

Apple haters, refrain from this post.

Apple announced a new iPhone today. Finally.

It's called the iPhone 4S. Some quick thoughts:

1. No iPhone 5 :(
2. Another 'S' iPhone? Really? I thought we were done with that stupid naming scheme.
3. On the other hand, it has the exact same upgrades as the iPhone 3GS- Better processor, better camera. better software, cool voice stuff.
4. Siri seems smart. Only if it gets Indian accents. Apple seems to be confident about this. From their site- "Siri makes phone calls, sends messages, schedules meetings, sets reminders, and more. How much more? Just ask, and Siri tells you that, too." This is not voice recognition, this is AI.
5. They have still managed to squeeze a better battery life. I pity humanity for battery technology.
6. This definitely has the best phone camera out there. It has a bloody 'image signal processor' built into the A5 chip! Also, real 8 megapixels.
7. Apple is quitely moving to Bluetooth 4.0 from Bluetooth 2.1 in its devices. It completely skipped 3.0. Apparently, Bluetooth 4.0 is a very low-energy version of 3.0. Classic Apple.
8. Also, there is no mention whatsoever of the processors in the specs page of the iPhone and iPod touch. No dual-core, single-core, GHz. It's the damn specs page, Apple. They really doesn't want to let us care these meaningless numbers. So different from Samsung and the other guys. It may also be that they don't want to highlight the iPod's year-old processor.
9. Why does Apple have to be awesome in everything it does? Just look at the iPhone's site. Awesome web design. Beautiful HTML5 animations.
10. Today, Apple's site seems to be down and shaky for too long. Apple has launched products before. Never has this happened. No-Jobs effect? Too soon to judge.
11. Say what you want, but at this moment, this is the best phone out there. May be an incremental upgrade to the legendary iPhone 4, but this has more than one can want. Let's make a list inside a list about the features:
• So fast that you can forget words like lag and stutter. From what I've heard, these words are remembered in dual-core Gingerbread phones. iPhone==stable.
• Best battery life.
• Best screen. I am so glad they didn't blow it up to 4 inches. 3.5 seems perfect.
• Gorgeous hardware.
• Fastest, clearest camera with 1080p video. My laptop can't even play such a high-res video properly.
• iOS 5 with free iMessage (Haha BBM), PC-free features and everything just integrated within. Also, 5,00,000 apps. 5 Lakh.
• iCloud with the most extensive and simple cloud services. Syncing and backup galore.
12. Actually, now that I think about it, the only disappointment is the lack of a new external design. Nothing thinner, bigger, weirder. Is it really a big deal or people (read: me) have started expecting more than ever from Apple?
13. I will buy this phone in 2011 with my saved money. There. I said it.

Update: Read this article. This may be the reason for Apple's 'underwhelming' announcement.